We had such a wonderful weekend! Friday was a "stay-at-home" night and we simply relaxed and enjoyed the kids. Its been a while since we had an empty Friday night.

Saturday was also quite relaxed until around 3pm -- when the party started!! We had a great time with our family and friends and Jason said it was a perfect night. He wanted to celebrate his birthday with family and friends in a low key fashion and I think we pulled it off quite well. We had dinner and some games, but mostly everyone just talked and ate.

Sunday was... amazing. We went to church in the morning and heard an absolutely awesome sermon from Pastor Frank. Seriously... it was incredible. It was taken from 2 Thes. 3: 6-18 The title was The Grace of Work and it was mainly about how we are fighting against Satan, not the world. We are part of an Army fighting for Jesus Christ; the word "fighting" means we're doing something and not being spiritually lazy.

He used a really good analogy of a homeless person holding a sign that says "Will work for food." In most cases that's not true - the person just wants money and is too lazy to actually go and work for it. He said that we often see those people and look down our noses at them in shame because we think they're so lazy and waisting their lives. So, he said that we can often times turn our noses down at them, but all the while, our spiritual lives can be in the same state as that homeless man; complacent, lazy, making excuses, etc... I thought of something interesting during the sermon. I so often go to read my Bible and pray - mostly early in the morning, when distractions are limited, but sometimes its not until the kid's nap time. Anyway, I find that the phone, front door and my thoughts can be a huge distraction to me and then today I realized... when I'm watching a good movie, I won't let those things distract me. Somehow I can ignore the phone (even turn off the ringer sometimes!) and I create an atmosphere in which nothing can distract me... when I want to. I was really convicted about that.

He also pointed out that we learn by example, not always by what we are taught. Our kids will more often than not do things they see us do and not the stuff we tell them. That is so true. When I was trying to teach Ethan to say "please" and "thank you" I had to say it myself all the time... over every little thing. He saw me doing it and then he quickly picked up on it.

He talked about how  we're all too often concerned with political matters than we are with our walks with God... there needs to be a real desire to imitate Christ. We're living our lives for Christ, not other people. That was so freeing to me. I like to please people and I've seen myself take that too far - going out of my way to make sure others are happy and comfortable, to the point of actually forgetting about what God would think of it or, just thinking God would approve because I'm making others happy. I loved his quote "Don't work to please man, do you work to please God. Don't do things to please people, do them to please God and bring glory to Him."

Then he talked about the busybodies that go around butting their noses in other people's business and taking on other's concerns when they shouldn't. That was very convicting for me... I do that too often and I know its sin and I know its wrong. I get caught up in listening to much to gossip and getting into other people's issues (which really is sin) when I should have nothing to do with it. When I'm busy doing that, I'm not imitating Christ at all, nor am I focused on Him, but those other people. So... lots to think about this week. It was a fabulous sermon. I took enough notes to write a book.

After church we had Jason's birthday lunch at Panda Express and then came home and we all took nice long naps and then had my parents and niece and nephew over in the evening for some ice cream fun.

All in all it was a great weekend. We've been really enjoying our Sundays lately - we miss all our friends in Livermore, but the new Sunday schedule has proven to be an incredible blessing to our family. Ethan is making some new friends as well and he has done very well in his class. God is so good to give us what we need and to provide so abundantly. We are truly blessed.

Hope you all have a wonderful week!